


Implicit Bias

by Uwansumadamboi



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alpha Jack, Alpha Yvette, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Bigotry & Prejudice, Explicit Sexual Content, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Heavy Petting, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Omega Rhys, Omega Timothy, Oral Sex, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, omega Vaughn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2018-10-31 11:32:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10898478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uwansumadamboi/pseuds/Uwansumadamboi
Summary: In which Omega!Rhys and Alpha!Jack are two friends (with benefits) who bond to each other out of survivalistic necessity and to better their careers at Hyperion... the whole thing gets a lot more messy than they ever thought it would be.





	1. The Glass Ceiling Is Three Meters Thick.

**Author's Note:**

> So for posterity, Vasquez works in the mail room, Jack is head of programming, Rhys is an entry-level sales rep, and Tassiter is CEO still. Vaughn and Yvette are in finances and requisitions like in tftbl.

Rhys' first day on Helios went about as well as could be expected for someone of his presentation, meaning that he got all the hushed whispers and glares from co-workers, condescended to by his boss and got more than a few propositions from un-bonded executives.  
It's not like he wasn't used to politely refuting someone who may as well have been his great-grandfather from trying to knot him.

It was just the status quot- people looked at omegas like the were no better than breeding stock or pretty playthings -no matter their status, whether it be an ivy league graduate or a Pandoran prostitute. If you had a job it was expected that you quit once you settled down with an alpha- had about twenty kids and slowly descended into madness because you have a one-ninety IQ and you spent the entire day picking out dog stationary.

**Long story short; Awful.**

Well, maybe he was exaggerating just _a bit_ but the fact remained that laws were put in the Alphas' favor and once an omega was bonded- legally they were considered their alphas' property. Even still, he had to do something meaningful with his life while he still had the chance.

At least he had to try.

 _Okay_ _Rhys_ , he thought, _this is what you trained for. Your first day working for the most cutthroat alpha-dominated corporation in the galaxy and why are you working here?_

“So I can prove everyone wrong.” he murmured to himself, apparently loud enough for the alpha to his right- a tall woman named Yvette.

“You alright there...” she paused, looking at the ID clipped on his skinny tie. “...Rhys?”

“Yeah, that's me- I'm fine.” He assured, “Just...” he trailed off, suddenly feeling ill.

“Worried about your first day?” she tried, looking almost sympathetic. In a moment she had her own Echo device out, pulling up Rhys' file. “Rhys Shapiro?”

“Yes...” he said cautiously, knowing she was probably in requisitions and pulling up somebodies file was probably just another Tuesday for her.

“So, twenty two years old...graduated top of your class at Eden-5 Megaversity...” she spoke back his file to him, if only to be sure she had the right file. “you're in sales, right?”

“...No?” He looked at her in confusion, “I'm supposed to be in programming, I mean that's what my backgrounds in.”

she looked at him oddly, deciding to check again before saying “I guess you were transferred, then.” with a shrug. “Happens sometimes with omegas.”

Internally Rhys was screaming, having a meltdown in the cage of his own mind but on the outside he had a neutral, if not pleasant expression on his face. “Well, do you know who I can talk to about this?”

She easily directed him to the HR department and said, “Good luck.” before telling him goodbye.

* * *

  
Rhys stormed over and into the HR department with a chip on his shoulder and a scowl on his face. He figured that a people-pleasing job like human resources would be filled to the brim with omegas and matronly betas, he was mostly correct on that front, so he figured that he might get a sympathetic ear – someone who would be at least somewhat willing to help him correct what could only be an extreme clerical error.

And yet, even with all the odds stacked against it, Rhys' notorious bad luck swung back into the fray and he managed to get one of the only alphas in the entire department sitting across from him with a look of permanent distaste plastered across his smug face.

“Rhys Shapiro?” The alphas' voice managed to be nasal and falsely saccharine at the same time – it grated on Rhys' nerves and he struggled with his instincts screaming at him to leave this alphas' space or risk getting hurt.

He reminded himself to be polite and make himself appear appealing and sympathetic to the alpha questioning him for his own betterment, “Um, yes hello I have a bit of a...” he pulled a face, “...Grievance.”

“What. Seems. To be. The. Problem?” His eye twitches as the HR alpha – whose name could Harold Tassiter and actually be some kind of undercover boss situation for all he knows – talks down to him like he's some dumb animal. Nevertheless, he takes a breath and reminds himself to be polite so he can get what he wants.

“I'm supposed to be in programming and I'm in-” He pulled an incredulous face, “Ugh, I can't believe I am freaking saying this- sales.” he said the last word like it left a bad taste in his mouth and if he was being truthful it did.

“I know. You were reassigned because you have...” the director gave him a very obvious lecherous once over that made Rhys feel sick to his stomach, “better uses in sales.”

“But that's not even ethical!” a little voice in Rhys' head reminded him that he was arguing ethics with someone who probably couldn't even spell the word but he could not bring himself to care about it, he had worked to hard to just lose it all because he had “better uses” working in sales- whatever the hell that even meant.

The alpha took a few steps towards him and the omega immediately felt alarmed, stepping away from him. “Listen here, _boy_.” he snapped, grabbing Rhys' arm hard with a punishing grip that was sure to bruise him up. “You'll work wherever Hyperion tells you to – you forfeited the right to complain when you signed that contract of yours.”  
Rhys scoffed, almost entirely sure there was no _omegas aren't people clause_ in the contract he had signed. “So why don't you be a good little omega and run off to do your job.” The sentiment of the words fill him with disgust and he has to bite back bile rising from him, keeping his eyes on the alpha until he lets him go.  
As soon as he's freed, Rhys runs off and the alpha sits back watching him flee, entirely pleased with how shaken up Rhys was with the encounter and watches the omega flee with a smirk playing at his lips.

* * *

The omega walked into the cafeteria with a miserable expression on his face, after what was probably the most miserable day of his life he just wanted to drown his sorrows in candy stuffed ice cream and maybe some platonic bro cuddles with Vaughn.

There's an upside, he thinks, someone who will get it.

Vaughn was an omega too, he would understand- unless they decided not to discriminate against him and just did it to Rhys. That would be even worse, Rhys thought, individualized discrimination was slightly more insulting than generalized discrimination.

He sat down across from his best friend, barely even meeting his eyes as he fidgeted with his company issued meal – thankfully provided gratis. Eventually the silence became deafeningly uncomfortable for Vaughn and he spoke up, “So – how did everything...how are you?”

“Fine.” Rhys hummed softly, not even meeting the other omegas' eyes as he lied. “Everything's cool.” if he had been looking at Vaughn, he would have seen the look the shorter male gave him that said, 'I know you're lying and I know that you're probably freaking out but I'm not going to force you to talk about it until we get home'

Rhys didn't though, so he continued to pick at his food like a petulant teenager and all but ignored the rest of the world in favor of pitying himself.

“Hey, it's you!” Yvette called to him from across Helios' cafeteria, she walks over to the table that he and Vaughn so morosely occupied with a grin on her face, “Did they transfer you back?”

“...No.” he spoke back, in a more snide tone than he wanted to come off with. “They basically told me to deal with it.”

“Yeah, they usually turn the prettier omegas into sales reps even if they have ivy league degrees and high IQ's like Rhys.” Vaughn says with a shrug, as if to say what are you gonna do. Then he reached forward, grabbing a hold of his friends arm to examine the angry red, black and blue bruises in a ring on his forearm. “Rhys you have a bruise.” he said intelligently, worrying his hands over the battered skin like a mother hen. “Who hurt you like that?”

“He...grabbed me it's-” Rhys was about to say nothing, but that wasn't even mildly true and he couldn't bring the words past his lips.

“Don't say 'nothing', dude.” Vaughn scolds, “You might be able to get that guy fired for trying to hurt you.”

“Probably not,” Yvette interjected, “There's only two alphas in the entire HR department and one of them is the head of it.”

“And the other?” the shorter omega asked almost hopefully, like the other alpha was maybe the knot-head he spoke to, hopefully someone completely unimportant.

“The other alpha...” She trailed off, “Isn't someone Rhys would have had the opportunity to speak with...” Because the other alpha – one she had met and was on a friendly basis, he was a more respectable type like herself- was attending to his mate for the duration of his heat leave.

“This sucks.” Rhys griped to himself, stirring his lukewarm chow mien in circles with no intention of eating it. Ever, “Once again my endo-type gets in the way of my progress!”

“It's not all bad,” Yvette pipes up, if only to be reassuring. “If you bonded with someone higher up you could probably-” She pulled a face, “Sorry, guess that makes me seem like one of those alphas. Didn't mean it like that.”

“I know” Rhys smiles at her knowingly, “You don't seem all that bad.”

“So uh, dude” Vaughn says dumbly, worried by the spark in Rhys' eye – something he had seen a few times before - “What are you going to do about all this?”

“Guess I'll just have to work harder,” He chirps back with determination, “Maybe I'll even be noticed for it one day.”

For now though, all he wanted to focus on was lunch.


	2. Assquez, Jack, And Bros In Between

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vasquez is a dick. that's it, that's the chapter. 
> 
> also, theres like gayperion and rhack so that's a thing...

The coming weeks in sales for Rhys were…an adjustment for the omega. Well, they were simple and easy until he put in for heat leave and his superiors realized he was an omega- an amazingly stupid oversight that he wished he could have been able to take advantage of.

His boss, Saul Henderson- a beta that sort of reminded him of a math teacher or some other sort of non threatening male presence- called Rhys into his office, so they could work all of that messy crap out.

He probably murdered eight people to get on the board, Rhys reminded himself.

“You need an Alpha guardian, Rhys.” Henderson spoke to him, “It's the rules here.”

“Alpha guardian?” Rhys queried softly, preferring not think of the legal implications of that – it sounded flawed and quite a bit on the condescending side.

“It's for your protection.” Henderson said and it came out believably but Rhys still balked at it.

“My protection.” Rhys repeated incredulously. He just didn't see what having some dull disinterested alpha looming over his shoulder would help – just seemed like a legal way to control him, if they wanted to protect Rhys they should just give him a taser or a stun baton – but he supposed he didn't have the option to argue with it, this was Hyperion after all. You either fell in line or could kiss your career, livelihood and possibly even your life good bye. “So who do I have to be shadowed by?”

“Uh let's see here,” Henderson turned to his own computer, pulling up multiple files with his own compiled within that list. “Hugo Vasquez, he works in this department.”

“Great.” Rhys quipped, an alpha with power over me vying for the same job! What could possibly go wrong? He thought, cringing internally at the implications when he knew what a competitive work force that Hyperion was.

* * *

It truly wasn't that bad, for about five minutes, until Vasquez came to realize that Rhys was already in league for a promotion- a promotion that Vasquez wanted – that the alpha got a little….catty. Because up until the moment that Henderson began talking him up- in a weird sort of 'he's one of the good ones' way – Vasquez thought Rhys would be just another run of the mill omega who would end up working secretarial no matter what, but no Rhys had to go and be impressive.

Rhys rolled his eyes, taking a psuedo-defensive stance as the alpha regarded him with thinly veiled insults and jabs at him. He crossed his arms over his chest, tired of being interrupted and talked over that he just tuned the man out.

He didn't truly understand the alphas snide demeanor toward him; it's not like it was his fault that he was competent that he had already managed to impress his superiors, but Vasquez seemed to have the idea in his head that Rhys was...sleeping with Henderson or someone like him for the promotion- something that he would never do, by the way.

“I don't even understand why you're even here.” Vasquez remarked, “Omegas shouldn't even be on Helios. If you wanna play career you should have applied at Anshin.” Rhys raised an eyebrow at the almost treasonous statement, “Medicine would be better for your...delicate sensibilities.”

“Fascinating.” Rhys snarked in disinterest, _'Yeah we get it dude. Omegas are bitches and the problem totally isn't that you're just a snide, obnoxious call back from a dead time that literally no one needs or even particularly wants to go back to. Nope!' “_ Look, Hugo-”

“Vasquez,” The alpha corrected, cutting him off for the third time in the hour since he had met Vasquez.

“...Right,” Rhys deadpanned back, “Look, do you actually have anything to say besides Alpha-rights rhetoric or can I go?”

'believe it or not, I actually have shit to do' he thought glumly as Vasquez decidedly, unfortunately, ignored him and kept talking and it kept going until his own comm began to ring- the buzzing had his leg visibly shaking so he looked at th device to see Yvette's name lit up on the screen and internally Rhys was cheering as her call was taken up seemingly by providence.

“I gotta take this.” he said, grabbing his comm and swiping the screen before Vasquez could actually protest.

“Rhys.” Yvette said, “You're needed in securities.”

Rhys' face lit up at that, he had been doing a little side work in securities pro bono because he was just so goddamn bored in his easy piss for brains need only apply sales job.

“You can't just-” The alpha tried, only to be cut off by Rhys- who did it with a goddamn smile.

“I gotta go, Vasquez.” he said, and before he could be stopped by he boar-ish alpha he ran out of his office to take the elevator up to securities.

* * *

_Rhys had never been the type to do what other people tell him to do, just because 'it's what he's supposed to do'. The entire concept had left a bad taste in his mouth since he had been old enough to speak and voice an opinion, he tended to question every single thing that didn't make sense to him- something that his own mother had encouraged with vigor_

_So when he was cornered after he met Vaughn- who he immediately thought was the most sweet, most adorable person on Dionysus and he definitely wanted to get to know him better._

_“You really shouldn't hang out with him Rhys,” some low-born jock alpha who probably had a name like Chad or Brad or Thad spat out, looking at Vaughn with distaste in a way that really set Rhys off internally. “You might catch something.”_

_He glared at the alpha and pulled a disgusted face, “I don't really think you should be the judge of who I can and can't hang out with.” and with that Chad-Brad-Thad walked off, looking at Rhys like he was some kind of lost cause- probably for the best- and Rhys moved over to sit with Vaughn._

_“He's right, you know.” Vaughn assented softly, picking nervously at his lunch as Rhys sat down next to him on the grass. “I'm basically a leper here.”_

_“Are you sick?” Rhys asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion. “I mean you look fine to me so...”_

_“Ha!” Vaughn blurted out, the laugh high in pitch and unexpected, “Ugh...no I- people just-” he sighed, taking to messing with his glasses. “they think somethings wrong with me.”_

_Rhys pulled a confused face, “You seem fine to me.”_

_“I uh, I'm not… I don't really like alphas.” Vaughn admitted in a small voice and shrugged, “I'm like a defective omega or something.”_

_“So you're just into other omegas?” Rhys hummed curiously, not exactly seeing why it mattered to the anonymous Alphas' who Vaughn was attracted to, “You're not attracted to alphas at all?”_

_Vaughn nodded swiftly, not blaming Rhys at all for his confusion – while not impossible, there had been multiple cases of omegas who just couldn't stomach alpha pheromones and took to dating other omegas and occasionally betas- it was still pretty rare for someone to be honest about it. “Uh, yeah. I guess it's pretty weird or...” Vaughn trailed off, looking upwards to find Rhys looking at him with a harlequin smile playing at his lips. “...What?”_

_“...Can I kiss you?” it struck Vaughn that his new found friend might be on the impulsive side and would probably be the type of person to never think about the consequences of his actions. It also struck him that he really didn't care._

_Vaughn balked, probably thinking it was a joke and Rhys took the opportunity to lean forward and softly press his lips against the other omega and Vaughn had no idea how to react or if he even should have but found it in himself to eventually,_

_“Why did you um...do that?” he questioned, “Not that I didn't like it or anything it's just that-”_

_“Cause I like you.” Rhys cut him off, “You're cute and honestly? You're probably the nicest person I've ever met.” he added as if it was entirely obvious. “And you smell really good.”_

_Vaughn had no idea what to say other than, “Oh.” before catching himself and adding, “Can we try that again, then?”_

* * *

Rhys grinned as he looked over at his smaller friend, who was currently fuming after Rhys had recounted every chauvinistic thing that Vasquez had uttered or done that day.  
He missed being with Vaughn like this, because even though their relationship ended long ago they still cared for each other deeply and consistently protected each other from harm.

“Ugh, Vasquez is so- I mean I can't believe he-” Vaughn spluttered indignantly, “Are you sure you're okay?” he added when he noticed Rhys' seeming indifference.

“What?” Rhys replied dumbly, before recovering with a, “Oh, yeah I guess. I'll live.”

“You'll live.” Vaughn replied incredulously, “You- the debate team champion who got in an argument with our history professor because he called omegas 'weak'. You're fine.”

“Yeah.” Rhys chirped back, “I'm just, you know I'm not planning on letting it get to me. Insecure people like Vasquez just feed off that shit.”

“That's true.” Vaughn bitterly admitted.

“What about you?” Rhys asked, “Do you have to report to the same kind of asshole.”

“No. uh, I...mine is on Elpis.” Vaughn admitted, and Rhys pushed him playfully.

“You lucky bastard!” Rhys chirped, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“You know I'm surprised, usually you have some kind of plan to get whoever might be messing with you put on the sex offender registry or something.”

Rhys hummed noncommittally in reply, lips quirked in a secret grin.

“Wait, do you have a plan?” Vaughn asked genuinely, knowing that Rhys' plans varied from thought out Machiavellian plot to something that you would write on a TGI Friday's napkin at three in the morning while high on cocaine. Either way, for better or worse, Vaughn wanted to know. “Because, you know you always- well you usually have a plan when it comes to crap like this so...plan?”

“My plan?” Rhys sighed laboriously, “I'm gonna keep my head down until Vasquez fucks up and then I'm going in for the kill.”

“Are you sure that'll work?”

Rhys shrugged and let out a nervous chuckle, “It has too because my only other option is to sleep with him and...” he pulled a face and gagged, “Not doing that. Nope.”

He would have honestly preferred to sleep with Henderson or one of the other geriatric board alphas and that was just disgusting at it's best case scenario.

Vaughn laughed as he sussed Rhys out of their shared apartment, hopeful and at the same time a little wary for his friend.

* * *

Keeping his head down still proved to be harder than he would have thought, because it was almost as if Vasquez was trying to goad him into some manic response, _Ha! Jokes on you Assquez, he thought, You think you're the first alpha that tried to ruin my life? Guess again!_

So Rhys' kept the aura of apathy heavily wafted around him as Vasquez did his whole I'm-an-alpha-therefore-I-am-better spiel.

“You know the difference between you and me, Rhys?” Vasquez said, with an air of superiority as if he expected Rhys to cower to him – he didn't. Rhys looked him in the eyes with a bored expression as he said, “People like me, and want to have my company and you struggle to get your mom to call you back?”

He really should have expected the swift sucker punch that landed right against his cheek and gave him whiplash, but he had been to busy gloating. He just decided to add that hit to the ever growing list of reasons that Vasquez needed to die- and realistically, if it came down to some kind of fight with the alpha Rhys figured he could handle himself. He had grown up getting into trouble for instigating fights with alphas and omegas alike- usually, he would win those fights because no one could fathom the idea that an omega wasn't just a delicate flower that anyone could just use and abuse as they pleased.

It was a stereotype that he was more than willing to take advantage of, especially now that he was stuck on a tin with an unusually arbitrary lack of omegas on board. So, until the time came that he could get away with getting rid of Vasquez he would just have to put up with the abuse with a fake smile.

“The difference,” Vasquez growled out, so insanely infuriated by Rhys' very id that he could barely contain himself against the omega, “is that I know my place and you-”

“Have a brain?” Rhys grinned at him, lopsided and superior – he almost hoped Vasquez would hit him again, give him a bruise so he could report the hell out of him and at the same time there were a lot of things that Rhys could say to the alpha, cut right to the insecurities that Vasquez buried deep in the back of his subconscious – and for a moment Rhys internally debated if it was worth committing career suicide just to see Hugo cry – but he just took a breath this time, a deep calming breath that he hoped would prevent all that rage brewing inside of him that was threatening to bubble out of him and snap out at the alpha.

“What do you need me to do, Hugo?” he said instead, hoping that he sounded appealing enough to the other that he could just get away from him. “What are you here for?”

“I need you to go deliver something for me.”

“Isn't the mail room your job?” it wasn't – not anymore at least – but god was a cheap jab every now and then just perfect for the omegas sanity.

“Just-!” The alpha took a breath, looking at his wits end with Rhys and he almost felt bad for the man, then he remembered that Vasquez had been an utter asshole to him since the moment that he met the omega and he got over it right quick. “You are so difficult, you know that right?”

“Yep.” He quipped back, popping the 'p' at the end obnoxiously. Daring Hugo with his eyes to try and hit him again – when he could fight back- as he held his hand out for the parcel.

* * *

Rhys practically ran through the halls of Helios to get those papers to whoever the hell 'Mr. Lawrence' was but if he didn't get to him in the next four or five minutes and bolt right back to Hendersons' office then he would be completely screwed over for the next several millenniums.

Honestly, with the track record that he had he completely should have expected to crash land into someone.

“Woah! What the fuck-”

“Shit, shitshitshitshit!” Rhys babbled incessantly to himself, before looking at the alpha nervously as if the older man was going to kill him or even worse- have him fired.

“I am so sorry… I'm sorry, this is- I'm so sorry.”

“For what?”

“The...thing- the things you were holding.” he pointed dumbly at the completely drenched in coffee manila file. “It's all- I'm really sorry.”

“Don't worry about it,” the alpha said dismissively, “S'just paper, sweetheart.” Rhys internally- he hoped- rolled his eyes at the endearment, “I'm Jack. I'm the...new head of programming.” there was a proud shine in his eyes, like he had clawed his way up to that position and he felt that he deserved to be a bit haughty about it- and judging by the frayed edges in his Hyperion label pullover and the tired look in his hetero chromatic eyes, he probably had to claw his way to the top and had been left with blood soaked and stubby fingernails...a nice image truly.

At that Rhys lit up immediately, “No shit! Really?” he said, almost amazed, “I was supposed to be in programming, you would have been my boss.” Rhys pulled a face, “Huh! Small space station..”

“Supposed to be?” Jack remarked back, a little intrigued by the snarky pretty boy omega, “Did you find something better...?”

“Uh,” Rhys laughed nervously, “No, I wish! But...they transferred me to sales and now I'm basically a telemarketer.”

It occurred to the both of them that Rhys was still straddling his lap and the awkwardness over took them. Rhys fumbled trying to get off of Jack and in turn, Jack started to chuckle at the ridiculousness of the situation they were in. He put forth effort to help Rhys with disentangling their limbs and be able to chat up this pretty omega with the sassy attitude.

The two of them moved back to a room with a scratched out plaque on it, the title illegible. “So...sales rep?” Jack said, once the two of them were out of the way of everyone.

“Yeah...” Rhys assented, “Pretty fucking stupid if you ask me. I'm not really a people person, I talk to much and say the wrong thing-” He rolled his eyes, “It's like, every time I talk I put my foot in my mouth.”

“Oof,” Jack quipped, “you know, I hadn't noticed.”

“Well, that's terribly unobservant on your part, Jack.” Rhys quipped before remembering himself, holding his hand out awkwardly for the alpha. “M'names Rhys by the way.”

“It's just cause you're pretty that they put you there.” Jack said, “It's pretty standard for Hyperion to do stupid shit like that, even though in this case...” Jack leered at him then, in an over the top way that was meant to be laughed at, “I totally don't get why they didn't just cut the bull shit and have you model cybernetics?”

Rhys stammered and balked for several minutes before he took a breath to compose himself and he said, “Are you Mr. Lawrence?”

“Uh, yeah last time I checked so...” Jack nervously rubbed the back of his head, “Why?”

Rhys smiled genuinely then, “Those papers are for you then, Jack.” he shook his head in a relieved fashion.

“Shit- fucking, Tassiter that piece of fucking-” Jack groaned to himself as he read over the paperwork, one hand balled in a tight fist around the manila, “When I'm fuckin' CEO

“Somethin' wrong?” Rhys queried, looking at Jack with something akin to concern. “You look...Tense.”

“Tassiters a dick.” Jack replied in clipped tones, the file basically crushed in his hand.

“Yeah, everyone knows that.” Rhys quipped with a humored smile gracing his face.

“He's especially a dick when it comes to me.”

“He'd probably be more of a dick to me.”

“Probably.” Jack assented with a humored grin, “At least I can play the I'm-not-an-omega card.” Jack didn't even want to think on the possibilities of being an omega, he knew how difficult it was for them on Helios – and in this galaxy in general.

“Yeah, at least you got that.” Rhys' grin faltered somewhat as he remembered Vasquez' thinly veiled threat, “I gotta go, my boss'll have my ass if I'm not quick.”

“Alright, I'll see ya around Rhysie.” Jack said, with all of the finality of a promise either to see him again casually or swoop him away for a good, hard, knotting.

Okay probably not, Rhys thought as he shook the thought away, back to reality Rhys. Still, it was really a lovely idea to an omega who had had to go through his last three heats on his own, with only one of those omega-aide dildos that he had begun to truly resent.

Though he did practically skip back to his office, but if you told anyone that he would deny it.  
**

“Hey.” Rhys greeted Yvette with a nod, “What the word?”

“You got a raise, Rhys.” Yvette remarked proudly, handing him a tiny envelope, “and a cash bonus.”

“Oh, really?” Rhys' eyes lit up, “That's great!” He exclaimed before adding to himself, “I should take Vaughn out to celebrate.”

“You're making waves around here,” the surprise she had was palpable if not outright and Rhys supposed that that was fair- he didn't look like much, just another omega trying to prove whoever wrong wasn't an uncommon occurrence. “From what I heard, you might be one of the firsts omegas to run a department.”

“Thanks, but I'm not so sure anymore.”

Yvette raised an eyebrow at that with an unspoken 'why' present on her face, when she said “Really.”

“Well, they all thought I was a beta, so…you know, with the whole...alpha peeking over my shoulder thing it might be,” He sighed, “A little more difficult from now on.”

“I think you'll do fine.” Yvette assured, soliciting a grin from the omega. “You're practically a genius, right?”

“Yeah...”

“And manipulating alphas and betas into doing what you want isn't that hard for you.”

“Yeah.”

“So, I think you're gonna do great – and you are doing great.”

Rhys looked at her gratefully because it was just the kind of thing he really wanted- and needed- to hear. “Thanks” He stated, before moving to stand up and get back to his and Vaughns' apartment.

“Hey, if you're planning on celebrating with that cash bonus… I could eat.”

Rhys laughed at that as he texted Vaughn to come and meet him by his office later. “Sure thing, 'vette.”

* * *

Vaughn entered the pitch-black abyss of Rhys' room, with a flick of the light switch. Rhys was there, his hand peeked out of the mop of blankets and pillows clutched at the sheets painfully tight.

“Hey, are you alright?” Vaughn looked at Rhys in concern though the taller omega couldn't see it as he was huddled in a blanket fort with his face buried in his hands, Vaughn struggled to peel away the blankets from Rhys, who held fast to them with a whine. “Dude what's up with you?” he asked, dutifully because Vaughn's job had always been to make sure that Rhys didn't destroy himself from the inside out after Rhys ended up in the hospital with an ulcer that to this day the taller omega refused to acknowledge was because of all the stress that he also refused to acknowledge.

“Me? Oh, you know. Just employing a bit of self-care.” Rhys replied as he pulled down the covers to reveal his tired and a bit of blotching present on his face, “It's been an exhausting couple of weeks...Sorry, I'm just really overwhelmed by all the...everything.”

Vaughn nodded, that made sense – Rhys was probably doing all the very typical Rhys things and forgetting to take care of himself, forgetting to eat or keep himself hydrated and then there was the fact of his impending heat…the combination of everything probably had the taller omega on edge.  
“Has Vasquez been acting all...Vasquez-y?” he tried, soliciting a giggle out of the other omega. Rhys looked at Vaughn evenly as he spoke.

“I mean….sort of?”

“What'd he do to you this time?” Vaughn snapped, irritated that his friend was in some sort of mini-crisis and he couldn't really do anything to help other than be there. “God, this- he sucks!”

“It's not crazy or anything, he's just so adamant that I don't belong in the work force because of my fucking endo-type and it's so fucking frustrating getting looked at like that,” Rhys pouted and pulled his friend closer, resting his head in Vaughn's lap. “I mean, you get it man you're cute as hell this shit must happen to you all the time.”

“Sometimes.” Vaughn admitted, harassment was just something you had to deal with on Helios – people were constantly trying to bully each other out of employment and omegas were profusely targeted on that end just because of all the stereotypes. “But you'd think that it wouldn't be someone like Vasquez doing it to you.”

“Yeah, right? I met this alpha today and he was- you know, flirting but it wasn't like I felt threatened by him or anything but I go back to fucking Vasquez' office and all I feel is dread.” Rhys rolled his eyes, “ I just don't get why it's such a fucking big deal to him.”

“Well, at least you get heat leave pretty soon so that's like…seven Assquez free days?”

“Fuck..” he pouted, “My heat. That's gonna go over well with captain Omegas-belong-in-the-kitchen.”

“You could...take suppressors?” Vaughn tried, “I legitimately think that everyone on my floor forgot that I'm an omega because of how long I've been on suppressors.”

“I can't. 'm allergic,” Rhys shook his head as he bit his lower lip nervously. The last time he took them he had been fourteen – his first heat – and had started having seizures and fits and ended up in a coma. The possibility that he might have outgrown the allergy was there but it just wasn't a risk the omega would ever be willing to take.

“I'm sorry bro.” Vaughn hummed sympathetically, “I totally forgot about that, man. That sucks.”

“It's okay man,” Rhys smiled at the other omega sweetly, “I know if you could do anything for me you would, so I'm not too bent up about it.” he sat up and readjusted himself so that he was sitting with his legs crossed, “Let's just make this apartment a No-Vasquez zone.”

“Yeah, that sounds fair.” Vaughn amended softly as Rhys leaned his head against the smaller omegas' shoulder and he looked over at Rhys with a curious smile, “What's going on?”

Rhys didn't answer really, just looked over at Vaughn with a look of mischief in his eyes. “Can we do a movie marathon? I'll order pizza.”

Vaughn smiled, “Yeah okay Rhys,” He murmured, fully intent on a session of Rhys sitting for the night.


	3. On Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys has his heat, Vaughn helps him out like the adoring bro he is and Jack has a proposition for Rhys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this has turned into gayperion and rhack?? like a poly thing?? what are outlines even.

Despite the fact that Rhys truly didn’t enjoy working in sales, that didn’t change the fact that he was damn good at it. He could walk into a room, look around and find the easiest mark, stride over to them and have them sign for more goods than they could feasibly pay for.

That sort of thing was dreadfully easy to him, so he was taken on a board meeting housing both Maliwan and Hyperion so that the two companies could create a brand of guns together – Rhys’ “Job” was going to be charming the pants off some R&D nerds and sales officials.

Again, dreadfully easy.

It was disappointing for sure, that the only way to get somewhere in Hyperion as an omega was to flirt and flaunt what he had but there wasn’t much to be done and Rhys decided to play the cards he was dealt.

He sighed, stepping out of his shared apartment with Vaughn once he was satisfied with the way he looked.

And he looked good: dressed to the nines in the most form fitting work outfit that he had stuffed in the back of his closet – tight black pants, black button up top, button up vest with buttons that lit up and a black sports coat with a hive pattern on the shoulders.

He looked good and he very well should have because the damn thing was so expensive that it cost about two of his paychecks, so he rarely wore it but today was a very special occasion and he needed to look his absolute best.

He walked down the halls of Helios, getting lost in the winding halls and unmarked doors until he found the boardroom he was looking for and walked right in, mumbling. “Of, course.” to himself.

“He-hey, pumpkin!” Jack called, seated at the table. The alpha had a confidence and a self-assured swagger in his very being that Rhys found himself blushing a little at the other mans’ presence, Rhys told himself that that was just biology. A chemical thing. “Rhysie, you’re the omega rep? That’s nothin’ against you I mean, shit look at you!”

“Omega rep?” Rhys replied, his voice cracking slightly with his nerves. “That sounds vaguely unethical.”

“Oh it totally is.” The alpha agreed, “You know how endo-type politics work. It’s pretty simple for you though, rudimentary intern shit. Y’know, pour coffee, hand out fliers and once you do that then you can just sit there and be a hot little...” Jack squinted, his nostrils flared a bit. “right at the edge of heat omega.”

Rhys tightened his legs together nervously, “Is it that obvious?” he asked with a little waver in his voice, “Do you think I should get scent-blockers or...”

“Nah, kitten.” Jack assured him, “Just don’t freak out, no one’ll dare touch you.”

“Right. Right, okay. You’re right.” Rhys mumbled back, “Thanks.” he smiled, “Plus it’s Maliwan. They’re absolutely terrified of Hyperion.”

“Yeah, you’ll do just fine cupcake.” Jack mumbled, “You got anyone to help you with your heats or...”

“Um, my….” Rhys paused, unsure of how to describe his relationship with the other omega. Though the two of them weren’t really dating and he had no obligation to help Rhys in any sense, Vaughn generally booked his heat leave where Rhys’ was so he could help the omega through them.

Fucking your bro because he needs you, he figures that’s like a more intense Friends-With-Benefits deal and he’s very, very pleased with the way that Vaughn was still so devoted to him.

Eventually he settled on, “...boyfriend Vaughn. He’s an omega too, so it’s a little rough going but it works out better than me roughing it with no help.” Rhys answered, “Also. No ones’ here?” Rhys blinked in confusion as he spoke, “Am I that late?”

“Early.” Jack seemed a little annoyed at the mention of Rhys already being spoken for and the omega bit his lip, thinking that the alpha already having some sort of unconscious possessiveness over him was pretty flattering and a little funny.

He didn’t usually make such an impression.

“You don’t seem like the type to be ‘early’ to anything, Jack.” The omega teased him with a friendly smile besetting his features.

Jacks’ expression softened a bit, still pretty charmed by Rhys and the omegas’ cheeky attitude. “Not giving Tassiter any sorta reason to fuck with me,” Jack responded dully, “’Sides, I got to chat with you for a bit so I’m not losing my shit.”

They talked a bit more before the meeting started, Jack explained some of the more stupid unwritten rules around Hyperion and surprisingly enough to him Jack seemed pretty decent when it came to things like his endo-type and he truly appreciated it.  
Helios was like a breeding ground of head-up-their-asses alphas’ who had no idea why any omega thought they had right to work alongside them.

Not that he really cared too much about the discrimination – he was pretty use to it. Still, having an alpha treat him like a person and not a brood-mare was decently refreshing.

When the doors clicked open with a group of high standing alphas, betas and even two omegas slotted into the room – Rhys was quick to jump back and make way for the group, hoping to play the part of secretarial omega well enough that he might get noticed for his hard work.

“Well, it’s nice to have you all here today.” Tassiter obliged the room, knocking Rhys out of his thoughts and gave the omega a start. “Hopefully we can come to some sort of agreement about profits, hardware and advertising together.”

Rhys couldn’t help but notice that Tassiter reminded him a little of a weasel when he spoke. He shook the thought away and strode over with a coffee caddy and took to pouring each person their coffee, ‘Jack was right’ he thought with honest annoyance plastered onto his features. ‘This is just grade school intern shit, fuck this is disappointing.’

“Rhys,” Henderson piped up, “Can you pass out the files over on that table over there for us?”

It wasn’t really a request, no matter how well it was framed as one and Rhys obliged his boss easily and went to the other side of the room, walking slowly enough to use his almost heated scent to manipulate the Maliwan officials easily as he went to get the copies.

Rhys walked over with purpose to the Maliwan researchers, handing each of them a copy of the files and running a well-manicured hand across one of the scientists’ shoulders as he walked back over to his designated spot.

After a few moments of being distracted by him, they went on their own business and ignored him. Rhys took advantage of his invisibility and listened in on the meeting shamelessly, the idea of merging Hyperion weapons with Maliwans’ patented E-tech sounded amazing and definitely something that he would be more than delighted in spending nights and holidays selling.

He did a bit of day-dreaming too, thinking about when he’d be sitting in Henderson or maybe even Tassiters’ seat one day and dictating those meetings like the bad ass independent omega that he was.  
**  
Rhys practically sprinted home, knowing that his heat would be starting soon and his heat leave paperwork had already been processed and he had even been given and extra day or two for a recovery period, a thank you for his effectiveness at the board meeting he was sprinting out of.

He needed to get out and into a safe space – his heat had almost smacked him in the face as the meeting ended and he wasn’t sure what it was that agitated his inner omega so much. Be it the stress, the pride he felt, the room full of alphas ogling him like a steak dinner or the familiar alpha he was currently flirting being at said meeting.

In any case, he didn’t really care if anyone saw him running to the residential district and smacking so hard on the elevators’ call button repeatedly and mumbling, “Come on, come on, come on…” on repeat, cagily looking over his shoulder in case some alpha was looming around him and waiting for just the right opportunity to attack.

Nothing like that actually happened obviously as Helios wasn’t like a giant back alley but his heated nerves were catching up on him in the worsts of ways.

He slotted in his and Vaughns shared apartment and practically collapsed onto the couch that sat in the middle of their tiny, “living room” and started tearing at his clothing – something he would hate himself for when his brain cooled down – trying to cool off and get some goddamn relief.

His brain felt foggy and he could barely do much else but halfheartedly rut against the cushions of the couch, “No, no, no...” He mumbled in his fog, “More, need more, need alpha, need...please.” he babbled on repeat, over and over again. In his heat crazed brain he thought that maybe if he begged enough an alpha would come and help him out of this awful predicament that he was in.

He didn’t really get that, instead he had reassuring hands petting at his hair and mumbling loving pet names as he nudged an ice cold bottle of water against Rhys’ lips and urged him to drink. He obeyed hastily and his brain cooled slightly as he looked over to see his best friend looking at him with a worried expression.

“Hey bro,” Vaughn hummed softly to his mewling counterpart. He wouldn’t have been surprised his Rhys just ignored him and continued rutting against his pillow and crying out for more of an alpha that wasn’t even there. “Thank god for suppressors.” he mumbled to himself as he leaned down to help Rhys up.

“Va-vaughn?” Rhys asked in a desperate throaty voice, “Dude, is, are… I … you there?”

“Yeah man, I’m here.” The smaller omega murmured in a comforting tone, “I’m here for you Rhys.”

“Help me?” He babbled nervously, like if Vaughn declined then he would just keel over and die. He grabbed his friends’ hand and directed it downwards, “Please, please, please. God I need it, I need it, I need it so bad...” he let out a choked sob, “Please!”

“Of course, Rhys.” Vaughn murmured sympathetically, helping the omega out of his slick soaked pants and underwear and gently unbuttoned his top and over coats. He popped off Rhys’ prosthetic and urged the omega to lay back down on the living room floor, figuring that they would probably spend a lot of time down there for the duration of Rhys’ heat as he couldn’t really manhandle the omega in the same way an alpha might with ease.

The smaller omega moved in between Rhys’ widely spread legs – the tall omega already working his own fingers in and out of himself in a desperate, needy haze. “I’ll be right there.” Vaughn promised him, “Just give me a moment.”

Silently, he thanks his neurotic habit of always locking the door when he came in or out – something Rhys forgot to do more often than not, which drove Vaughn absolutely crazy – if some alpha caught a whiff of Rhys, they might try to come in and take what they wanted from the tall omega when he was in absolutely no position to consent to anything.

He planned to put Rhys’ arm up to charge, safe and out of the way from whatever might happen but the desperate cries that the omega gave him had Vaughn stopping out of pity, settling with putting his arm up over their bookcase and hoping for the best.

Vaughn leaned in between the other omegas’ legs, lifting one of Rhys’ long legs and poising it over one of his shoulders and circled his fingers against the rim of Rhys’ puffy hole. He slid two of his fingers’ into the taller omegas’ wet entrance and as Rhys wrapped his legs around

“N-n-n-no don’t stop don’t ever stop.” The omega mewled in distress and Vaughn was quick to sooth him and mutter, “Not stopping.” to Rhys before he had his mouth on the other omegas’ leaking cock.

The moan that Rhys released was like absolute nirvana, loud and desperate in a way that went straight to the root of Vaughns’ ego. He keeps going, pumping his fingers and sucking until Rhys comes hard, gasping and crying out the other omegas’ name.

Rhys’ chest slowly soft heaving and the tall omegas’ heart rate slows back down to an almost normal rate but Vaughn doesn’t relax a bit, knowing how crazed his friend could get during his heats and sure enough within moments Rhys is back at begging Vaughn for more, harder, faster.

So the smaller omega was in between Rhys’ legs again and getting back to work with his hands and mouth until Rhys slumped over, coming one more time. He doesn’t move around for a few minutes and Vaughn takes that to mean that Rhys is at least a little more lucid than he was moments earlier.

“Did that help a little?” Vaughn murmurs to him, hoping that Rhys would be verbal enough to answer him.

“Mm-hmm, can you get the...” Rhys mumbled trailing off sleepily, “Omega-Aide.” he finished after moments of sluggish silence. He enjoyed the sanity for as long as he could, knowing that his heat would come right back – probably more intense than it was in the first place.

“I’m on it.” Vaughn assured, disentangling their limbs from each other, and running to get the omega-aide for Rhys before the omegas’ heat got even worse.

“Fuck,” Vaughn cursed as he fought with the packaging, this toy was very well the bane of his existence and he wished fire and brimstone upon whoever decided to make packaging for a heat soother so obnoxiously hard to maneuver.

It’s a few frustrating moments before Vaughn comes back to the sobbing mess of his best friend and he’s quick to jump to his aid. “Hey, hey it’s okay Rhys.” The more present omega cooed in a soothing tone, his voice dropping in register and emitting a calming purr as he spoke, “I’ve got something for you.”

“O-oh,” Rhys babbled, as he saw the plastic cock. “Please! P-p-p-please Vaughn help me.” he begged softly and flipped over on his stomach, arching his back and mewling.

Vaughn leaned over Rhys, running a hand down his back and positioning the dildo at Rhys’ hole. He slowly pumps the omega-aide in and out of Rhys with almost detached and clinical efficiency as he murmured sweet and dirty nothings to the other omega.

When Rhys was at the brink of orgasm he cried out and Vaughn quickly pressed the button on the side to fill the synthetic knot in Rhys’ hole and calm the omega down. He knows that it’s not exactly the same, the omega in Rhys wishes that he had more – harsher movements, biting, a thicker knot – but he loves the care in it all the same and if he was a little bit more lucid the tall omega would probably be babbling thank yous’ and declarations of love to his best friend.

Vaughn leaned down to where Rhys was sitting on the floor, slick stains muddled underneath him. He helped the omega up and uttered, “Feelin’ a little better?” to him. “I know it’s not...” he frowned, deciding to not say what he was thinking, “You’re alright, though?” he asked instead.

Rhys nodded gratefully, a half smile on his lips. “Yes. So much, thank you.” he said to Vaughn gratefully, “You’re the absolute best, you’re my best friend dude.”

The omega was clearly distressed, though Vaughn had no idea what he had his best friend so teary eyed. The smaller omega decided to just roll with it and took to pettting at Rhys’ damp auburn locks and made soothing noises to the taller omega that had him keening desperately and nuzzling against his best friend with reckless abandon.

Vaughn knew that this heat would probably be a lot more difficult than the others’ that he helped Rhys with, he just hoped that he wouldn’t come out of it with too many marks on his body – the air conditioning on accounting had been out for the past weeks and he really wasn’t looking forward to having to wear a turtleneck into work everyday to cover up the damage that Rhys did to him.

When Rhys cools down a little, he curls up next to Vaughn as they put on some god-awful monster mash movie. They would probably get ten minutes through the film before Rhys was clawing at Vaughn with seeming intent to ravage the other omega.

“Dude?” Rhys asked as he looked over at Vaughn, “Hey, Vaughn. Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah.” the accountant shot back, “Shoot.” he added, shooting finger guns at Rhys who for the most part did a good job of being wounded by the invisible shot.

“So, um, I was – well, I was wondering why you...” The taller omega paused, suddenly feeling very much shy and unsure if he should say what he had been thinking.

“Come on, man we don’t have much time before you’re delirious again.” Vaughn reminded him with seeming impatience.

“Well, you always fuck me through my heats but…” He paused, ran a hand through his messy auburn locks and looked back and forth between Vaughn and the floor. “You don’t really get anything out of it?”

That was true enough, Rhys’ heats were bad enough that they bordered on dangerous for the other omega and the accountant had far more to lose than gain when it came to helping his friend.

“Oh.” Came from the accountant before he laughed a little, “I guess, that I don’t need to get anything out of it?” he tried, “I mean, you know, you’re my best friend and I’m gonna try to help you at least a little.”

In that moment, Vaughn was truly the best friend that he had ever had and in his not-so-humble opinion the best friend that anyone in the world could ever have. “Dude.” Rhys babbled, “Bro...that’s the most bro thing I have ever heard in the history of ever.”

“It’s what I’m here for bro.” Vaughn said just as equally serious as Rhys was.

Sure enough they only get a few minutes of peace and quiet before the lanky omega was rutting against him with vigor. He wasn’t surprised by that, what he was surprised by was the way that Rhys chose to cool himself back down.

“Rhys, what are you-” the small omega was cut off by Rhys’ lips crashing against his own and the taller omega working Vaughns’ pants open with little care for what he might have to say about it,

“I want you to get something out of it.” The omega purred huskily, still at least a little lucid as he lowered himself down onto the other omegas’ cock.

“I didn’t mean it like that Rhys… I just...” Vaughn trailed off, unsure as of to what he actually intended to say to protest this and got lost in the feeling of Rhys. “God you are amazing.” he blurted out.

Rhys giggled but didn’t say anything, just seated himself and took to grinding on the other omegas’ cock in a way that he was entirely sure that the other omega would love.

Rhys quickly got into the rhythm of it, trying to stave his heat a little by sheer will power so he could really enjoy this – even for a few moments. He loved being on top, he liked the control he had over the pace and above all else loved how deep he could get someone else to go inside of him like this.

Vaughn was unsure if this would really help Rhys but the omega kept bouncing on Vaughns’ cock with reckless abandon, going so fast and hard that the other omega is sure that he’ll have rug burn on his dick when this was all over.

“Rhys I’m-”

“Coming? Good.” Rhys answered lazily, letting the other omega fill him up.

He mewled in an unsatisfied way taking Vaughns’ free hand and guiding it to his already filled hole, the smaller omega got the message and eased his fingers into Rhys’ hole, making for a fairly effective make-shift knot that actually managed to trick Rhys’ omega lizard brain and had him coming again.

“Hey,” Vaughn murmured with a kiss to Rhys’ forehead, more of a covert way of checking to see if he had cooled down any than anything else, “are you alright?”

“Mm-hmm.” Rhys mumbled while he pressed chaste kisses against Vaughns’ neck, “I love you.”

Vaughn brushes off the admission, figuring it was just an after effect of his heat. Rhys was over-stimulated and needy, he sincerely doubted that he was actually in love with Vaughn just...grateful.

Yeah, that was it.

In any case, Vaughn detaches himself from the slumbering omega with haste and walks over to the fridge to get some food and water for when Rhys wakes up sore and hungry.

Rhys was almost always over-prepared for his heats and he stocked pre-made food and cold water bottles into his fridge so whoever was taking care of him could just get him something quickly without having to cook or anything tedious such as that.

It’s moments like these, a lot of moments lately it seems, when Rhys is practically octopussed around him and smiling at Vaughn like he’s the only person in the whole world that he thinks he might be dropping back into old – bad – habits and falling right back in love with the lanky, adorable omega.

This was a terrible idea, he knew that. Because no matter how much the other omega seemed to adore him, he knew that Rhys could never love Vaughn the same way that Vaughn loved him and that cut to the omegas’ very core – being rejected like that was worse than if Rhys had just spat in his face and told him to kill himself.

“I’m a sucker.” The omega grumbled to himself, “A complete and utter fucking idiot.” he added, continually beating himself up for letting himself fall for the omega again. “Stupid.”

Still, as he looked over at Rhys’ sleeping form he couldn’t really say that he minded being an idiot all that much.  
**  
Once Rhys’ heat was over he was still left feeling completely emotionally and physically drained, even though Vaughn had been incredibly and even with the extra day that Henderson had given him he still felt like death was upon him and all he could think to do to help with it was to practically overdose himself with coffee and energy drinks.

That’s why he was at the worlds most dingy convenience store at two in the goddamn morning so he could caffeinate himself enough to function – he really didn’t need Vasquez having another reason to act like he didn’t deserve a job on Helios or at Hyperion in general.

He window shopped around the tiny area, grabbing one of those four packs of energy drinks so he could have them all tomorrow – horrible on his kidneys, great for his career – and looked around some more for candies and maybe a pint of ice cream for himself.

The omega was almost done and ready to check out when he knocked into someone and all of the things that he had piled in his hand hit the floor.

He looked up at the person he smacked into, ready to apologize – or tell them to fuck off, it could go either way with the way he was feeling – and felt a shock when it was the same alpha that he had run into three times in the past month.

Jack grinned at him easily, “Hey, it’s you again.” he stated not unkindly, “It’s weird that we keep running into each other, right? It’s pretty weird.” he added in a way that suggested that he definitely was not complaining.

Jack moved down to help Rhys pick everything up from its scattered place on the floor and handed the foodstuffs back to the omega, their hands accidentally brushing while he did so.

“Fancy meeting you here.” Rhys regarded Jack with a small smile on his lips, “Figure this kinda place is a little above your pay grade.” he added, looking around the dingy convienence store.

“Eh, this place is the only one on Helios that sells the shitty pretzels I love so much.” Jack admitted, shaking said bag of pretzels like it was exhibit A through Z of a murder case.

Rhys chuckled, “If they’re so shitty, then why are you putting yourself through so much trouble to have them?”

“Cause I hate myself.” The alpha joked, “No, uh...I dunno. Been eating ‘em my whole life so...nostalgia?”

Rhys smiled, wavering a little tiredly and whining pathetically as he did so. “You alright, Rhysie?” Jack asked, looking at the omega with surprising concern.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good, man.” Rhys answered back, holding onto one of the counters to help balance himself.

Jack frowned, thinking about how stubborn the omega was as he put a securing hand on Rhys’ shoulder. “You sure?” he asked, “Because it seems like your boyfriends not really helping you like he should.”

Rhys furrowed his brows at the alphas presumption, he even went so far as to take a step back in his offense. “No, Vaughn helps me more than you could know.” he defended the omega, “It’s just… I have these crazy intense heats and I practically kill him every time it comes up. I don’t really have any sort of alpha friends, so I don’t have any other choice.”

“Jesus, princess I’m sorry.” Jack put his hands up in mock surrender, “but you don’t book with an agency?” he asked, simultaneously impressed and wary of Rhys’ train of thought. “Wouldn’t that be a little easier on the both of you?”

“I don’t really want some stranger in my house,” Rhys replied in a deadpan tone, “feeding me and fucking me when I can barely finish a sentence.”

“Gotta say, really into this whole ‘fuck the world’ attitude you got right now.” Jack commented in a way that elicited an undignified snort from the omega.

“Sorry, just...” Rhys sighed, “I’m just exhausted, all I want to do is die.”

“You’re good, babe.” The alpha assured genially, making a movement to leave the store before turning back around again at the last moment, “Oh, you know I don’t really know you all that well but if you need an alpha to help you for your next heat I’d be glad.”

Rhys blushed, unsure as of how he should answer the alpha in a way that didn’t make him seem like a complete idiot.

“Just think about, no pressure.” Jack continued, “Ask your boyfriend or whatever you need to do.” he winked at the omega, “I don’t like seeing pretty omegas’ all distressed and outta sorts like you. You know where to find me, cutie.”

Rhys stammered a bit as Jack rudely left him to think everything over and it was only once he was back in his shared apartment with Vaughn that he remembered that he hadn’t thought to correct Jack on Vaughn being his boyfriend.

_‘Oops.’_


	4. "Healthy" Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween, yo.  
> Some more Gayperion as we ease into the Rhack!  
> Yaaaaaaaayy....!  
> Vasquez is... there. He exists,he's kind of a dick.. you know, whatever.
> 
> (Also, thank you to everyone whose been leaving comments, it gives me life. tysm)

Well, it was official – Henderson was prepping for retirement and both Vasquez and Rhys had been gunning for the mans position with fervor.

“A bit of healthy competition.” Henderson said, as though that was a real thing. “You’ll both get a promotion in the end.” he added with an almost genial smile, “But the winner will be the department head.”

Rhys kept his chin lifted, a determined look in his eyes – Vasquez had… power over him, power that he couldn’t stand to lose any more of and if Vasquez with his smarmy alpha rhetoric got his way then Rhys would be completely and utterly screwed.

Vasquez on the other hand well, he had a similar look to what he usually had when addressing all of the reasons that Rhys couldn’t be the head of any department – let alone sales. “Are you sure that he could handle that?” he asked rhetorically.

It was surprisingly tame, compared to the diatribe that he usually received but still enough to stoke his temper.

“Not _this_ again.” Rhys grumbled to himself, “You know Hugo-”

“It’s _Vasquez_.” The man corrected, never willing to let Rhys get the tiniest bit familiar with him.

“I don’t care.” Rhys quipped shortly, “I can do anything that you can – probably better seeing as how I don’t have my head up my ass.” he crossed his arms over his chest petulantly.

Vasquez grit his teeth but didn’t reply – Rhys liked to imagine it was because the alpha had no way to come back from that – and faced towards Henderson. “How are you going to quantify this? So it’s objective.”

He knew exactly what Vasquez meant by that, but it was still a decent question – minus the implication – so Rhys just nodded minutely in agreement at it.

“Oh, weeeeeell… general performance, among a few other things..” Henderson responded, “How well your sales are, how well your performance reviews stack against each other. How suited you are to leadership, things like that.”

It all seemed fair enough and a win-win situation in the end… unless Vasquez won, because he wouldn’t put it past the man to use his loss as a way to humiliate and degrade him for the rest of his career on Helios.

That…would be a situation that he couldn’t think to live in and not just because it would be humiliating but because there was a chance that his safety might be compromised. He’s not a fan of being on the short end of a power imbalance and with the way he acted towards the alpha…he didn’t even want to think about that scenario.

He supposed that he would just have to make sure that he won, for his own safety as well as his own ambition, he would have to succeed.

* * *

“Henderson, huh?” Jack spoke to Rhys while he fought with a particularly difficult line of code – he really hated coding. “You know he’s, like, a total racist right?” he added in a darkly amused tone.

He was good at it, don’t get him wrong on that front but it was just so damn boring and if you messed up one line or even a period you were pretty much fucked and had to root through all the individual lines and numbers for hours.

If Rhys hadn’t been in his apartment then he might have been screaming in frustration or throwing everything small and within reaching distance across the room.

The omega had graciously offered to cook for him and he had practically jumped on the offer – he usually never had the time to cook for himself, so he generally just stuffed his face with shitty pretzels and hoped for the best.

“Pfft, Jack he is not.” Rhys dismissed, chuckling the whole time. “Where did you even hear that? That’s… dumb.”

“Rhysie.” Jack exclaimed like he was offended that the omega even asked, “I am on the up and up with these dirty old men, you think I don’t make a point to listen to all of the juicy gossip the board members have been spewing?”

“I had no idea that the board members gossiped.” The omega couldn’t help but find it hilarious, thinking of a bunch of alphas’ in their mid to late fifties giggling like a bunch of teenage girls over the latest bit of gossip.

“All of them do.” The alpha joked back, “It’s like a prayer circle in there.”

Jack walked towards the kitchen, “What are you making anyway?” he asked, attempting to peer in the area curiously.

He had not expected to be almost forcibly pushed out by the omega before him and he looked at Rhys with a measure of surprise.

“Don’t do any looking Jack Lawrence.” Rhys commanded in a tone that reminded the alpha of what a mother might sound like. “This is a surprise and I’ll not have you ruining it by being nosy, so go… or else I’ll throw everything in the trash.” The omega put his hands on his hips to accentuate the ultimatum.

“Rude.” Jack huffed as he walked off, ultimately obeying Rhys in the end. “Friggin’ brat holding food over my head.” he grumbled as he sat himself back down on his beat up couch.

Rhys chuckled at that, “Go on and get back to work on that code, ya big baby.” he said, “I promise that what I’m cooking for you will be worth it, handsome.”

“Brat.” Jack said again as the omega sashayed back into the kitchen, he couldn’t help but let a grin spread on his face as soon as Rhys couldn’t see it.

He wasn’t entirely sure what the omega wanted from him or even what he wanted from Rhys but he knew that he definitely had a soft spot for him and Jack knew that he would be liable do to a lot of things for him if Rhys asked him to. The weirdest thing about it was that it wasn’t even entirely about sex or attraction. Jack just... wanted to be around Rhys, and as much as he really, _really_ wanted the omega all to himself... Jack found that he just wanted Rhys to be happy.

It was all very weird to him, so he decided not to think about too much.

“Speaking of Henderson,” Jack said, if only to distract himself. “He has a kitten fighting ring, too.”

“Oh my god…” Rhys mumbled to himself in an incredulous sort of fashion before addressing the alpha, “He does not.”

Jack laughed at that, “That’s just what I’ve been told… but I believe it. Because it’s funny as hell.”

Rhys rolled his eyes at that, “I can guarantee that you have no proof of that.” The omega countered. “You know, because that’s freaking stupid and ridiculous.”

“You really think so?” Jack replied, “You want to make it a little more interesting?”

“Interesting?” Rhys parroted in a questioning tone, “Like a bet?” he added with a little more incredulity. “You’re that confident that he’s a kitten fighting ring running racist?”

“I have one hundred percent confidence that I’m right.” Jack smacked his hand down on the table, “I am never wrong about anything.”

“I’m not taking any bets with you,” Rhys hummed as he returned with two plates filled to the brim with food, “You would probably stack the deck against me and cheat.”

The alpha just laughed at that, “That’s probably smart, Rhysie.” he agreed as he took one of the plates.

The omega gave him a wry grin, “Eat up, asshole.”

“Damn, this is actually good.” Jack commented with an impressed tone. “I mean, I figured that you wouldn’t make anything disgusting but… this is actually really good.”

Rhys rolled his eyes and let out a little laugh, “I’m a born and raised proper omega, thank you very fucking much, of course I can cook like a champ.” he put his hands on his hips in a prototypical sassy display that really amused the alpha.

“Proper omega?” Jack parroted, “Seriously? You, the sassy corporate climber.”

“Yep.” Rhys hummed, popping the ‘p’ at the end obnoxiously and fanned his arms out like a debutante about to take her first dance. “I can cook, I can clean, I can dance, I can sing and I can speak four languages.” he pulled a face, “Only, like, two of those things are actually useful to me.”

“Where the hell did you learn all that? Some kind of omega finishing school?”

“Actually, yes! My dad was weird about the whole, you know, me being an omega thing.” Rhys dully explained, “He had some pretty old school ideas about how omegas’ should be brought up and socialized.”

Jack had a look on his face that gave Rhys pause and caused him to remember himself and who he was talking to.

“Sorry, I’m oversharing. Right?” The omega sighed, “I do that a lot, feel free to tell me to shut up whenever you want.”

Jack had a grin like a viper, “Like I’d ever tell you to shut up, kitten. You look cute as hell making a fool of yourself.”

“Tell me something about your life so I feel a little less weird?”

“Never.”

“Then I guess you’ll never learn about the Victorian melodrama that was my childhood.” Rhys hummed in a wistful tone. “Oh, well…”

Jack snapped his fingers, as if to say ‘damn and I almost got away with it too’.

Eventually their banter died down and Jack continued working while Rhys watched a mindless program on the large TV that Jack owned but hardly ever got to use.

“Is something wrong?” Rhys asked as he peered at the alpha, “You look a little tense.”

Jack liked to think that he was keeping his seething quiet and internal, apparently he was wrong.

“Hm? No I’m fine...” Jack dismissed, “it’s just this fucking code.” he added in a frustrated tone.

The omega sat next to him, tucking his too long legs underneath him as he did so. “I can look at it if you want.” he offered.

The idea might have bothered him if Rhys hadn’t been in a completely separate department from him and low enough on the Hyperion totem pole that trying to fuck him over would have more likely ended up blowing in the omegas face.

“Just like that?” Jack joked, “No ulterior motive.”

Rhys shook his head, “No.” he answered simply, “I just figured that you needed a fresh pair of eyes and besides, I like coding. I’m good at it.” if he was standing, then he would have been bouncing on his heels in anxious excitement.

“You’re lucky that you got someone like me here for you pumpkin.” Jack comments as Rhys patiently reads over the individual lines. Jack notes that he mouths the numbers as he works, furrowing his brow in concentration for about ten minutes before he returns the tablet to the alpha.

“Here ya go!” Rhys chirped, “You missed a period on the seventh line, it should work fine now.”

Jack hummed noncommittally at that, “Smart little kitten.” he praised, “That’s hot.”

The flirting, the omega had come to realize, was just a facet of Jacks’ personality – because did the alpha flirt a lot. And not just with him, with pretty much every reasonably attractive person he came across on Helios.

Alpha, Beta and Omega alike, none of them were safe from Jacks’ terrible pick up lines.

Rhys chuckled in return, “Aw, I bet you say that to all the omegas who cook for you.” he gushed in a sardonic tone.

Jack had a fond look on his face for a moment, like he hadn’t even realized that he had made the expression, before he trained his features back into his trademark grin. “I’ve only had one other omega cook for me.”

“Really?” Rhys cocked his head at the alpha, somewhat curious. “Who?”

Jack let out an awkward cough, “My brother.” he answered. There was something sad in the alphas eyes that Rhys had never experienced from Jack.

Rhys let out a surprised noise as he hadn’t known that Jack had a brother. Though he supposed that that made a lot of sense, the two of them hadn’t known each other long – it felt like a lot longer than it was, at the very least.

Rhys leaned against the alpha, “Brother, huh?” he gave Jack a lazy smirk, “Does he look like you?”

Jack snorted, “Almost identically. We’re uh, we’re twins.” then an expression caged his face that almost looked to Rhys like it was sorrowful and nostalgic, “Only thing seperate about us is that Timmy – that’s his name, Timothy – has freckles and he’s an omega.”

Rhys smiled, “He looks like you with freckles? That’s so cute.” he complimented genuinely, “Does he work for Hyperion or some other company?”

“Nah, he writes books.” Jack hummed, one hand snaking around his waist covertly. “Fantasy novels.” he explained, “About bears.”

“Your brother sounds absolutely delightful,” Rhys gushed, “I would absolutely love to read his bear novels.”

There was something mischievous in the alphas’ eyes then, “Now you’ve gotta tell me something about you, remember Rhysie.”

The omegas’ eyes lit up, “Alright.” he said, “My parents got a divorce when I was twelve… because of me.” he squinted, “Weeeeeell, more like how my dad treated me. But still!”

“Depressing.”

“Ha, yeah. No that’s not all,” Rhys shushed the man, “After they divorced my mom decided to adopt more children.”

Jack liked where this was going, “You’ve got siblings?”

“Yep, two sisters.” Rhys agreed, “They’re completely awful.” he teased, “I wanted a puppy but noooooo.” he stuck his tongue out, like he had just tasted something bad. “Sisters.”

“Sisters, huh?” Jack raised a brow, “Were they Betas or...”

“Alphas.”

Jack sniggered at that, “Bet they gave you hell growin’ up, kitten.”

“ _All_ the time.” The omega pulled a distasteful face, “But, they’re good people and they beat the crap out of any creepy alphas that tried to get near me when I was growing up. So there’s that.”

“You gotta let me meet them some time, pumpkin.” Jack joked, “They sound like my kind of people.”

Rhys bit his lip lightly and let out a little giggle, “Yeah, sounds like fun.” he agreed.

Though, when he thought about how overprotective his siblings were he imagined that Jack meeting them might end up with disastrous – if not lethal – consequences.

* * *

Although Rhys had been delighted at the prospect of an alpha fawning over him for a bit, he was all too happy to return home to his ‘not boyfriend.’

He wasn’t entirely sure exactly what was going on with him and Vaughn – the two of them used to be together and they were pretty much in love with each other and it was clear to Rhys’ family that it was serious between the two omegas.

They dated for a pretty long time, longer than most would do during their teen years – pretty much everyone that they knew thought that the two of them would live out the rest of their lives together and Rhys was hard pressed to agree with them… until they broke up.

That wasn’t to say that the two of them broke up with some disastrous fight or falling out that ended with them hating each other– it was pretty amicable and mutual between them.

Rhys had been offered an internship with Atlas – one that he was more than willing to take, by the way – while Vaughn had Hyperion as his first choice. The both of them had agreed that a long distance relationship would put too much of a strain on them and had agreed to stay just as friends.

Rhys had finished out an internship with Atlas and he had done fairly well for himself seeing as how short his career their had been.

Then, well then Atlas had been absorbed by Hyperion – how it was taken, he couldn’t think of – and Rhys had been amicably offered a career at Hyperion.

That was how they stated it, “Amicably.”, like they were doing him a favor.

At first he had been furious about it and considered telling them right where they could shove their “amicable” offer.

But he had never been a quitter and he had never been able to walk away from a challenge so he had taken the job and it worked out about as well for him as he had first assumed. The one good thing about going to Helios was reuniting with his best friend after a few years of not being able to see each other.

Now, all they had was time together and Rhys felt like it was the best part of working for Hyperion. Having his best friend with him made all the gross comments that he got from his higher ups and the whole “Alpha Guardian” thing seem as easy and bearable to deal with.

He could deal with a lot of things so long as he had his best friend at his side, helping him navigate himself throughout all of the bullshit that he had to deal with on Helios and he would help Vaughn through any troubles that he might have.

“Hey,” Vaughn muttered tiredly, “Did you have fun with...what’s his name?” the smaller omega trailed off pensively, “Jack.” he answered himself with.

Rhys frowned and moved over to where Vaughn was sitting, “Hey.” he hummed as he leaned against the smaller omega, putting an arm around his shoulder. He looked over at Vaughn and hummed, “Is somethin’ wrong?”

Vaughn had a guilty look on his face and for whatever reason Rhys couldn’t be sure but he felt the need to comfort him nonetheless. “It’s okay,” he assured, “You can tell me.”

“Do you think it’s weird how we still sort of… I dunno, never mind.” Rhys gave him a look and Vaughn conceded, “Okay, well it’s like this… Yvette asked me out.”

“Oh.” Rhys exclaimed, feeling some sympathy for the both of them. It had to have been strange for Vaughn to gently reject Yvette and it must have been even stranger for Yvette.

“So I told her that we were, you know, together.”

Rhys nodded, that was understandable – especially considering how Rhys still hadn’t managed to tell Jack that Vaughn was actually not his boyfriend.

“Which, I guess, whatever. We’ve done that before but then when I was uhm, helping you during your heat you told me that you loved me and-”

“I did?” Rhys paled at the discovery – he was usually pretty good at keeping himself from making things weird with Vaughn.

“Yeah,” The smaller omega replied with a small smile. “I figured it was just all the hormones.”

Rhys buried his face in his hands in his embarrassment. “Sorry.” he mumbled, “God, I made it weird didn’t I?”

“No – I mean a little but...” Vaughn gave the other omega a weak grin, “I dunno man, I kind of miss that.”

“Miss what?” Rhys looked at Vaughn through bleary eyes, “What do you miss?”

“I miss,” Vaughn cursed underneath his breath, “This is gonna sound cheesy but I miss us.”

“I… do too.” Rhys admitted and just like the first time, he didn’t think about the consequences of his actions when he moved towards the other omega and gently pressed his lips to Vaughns’.

The kiss was slow and sweet and gentle, in a phrase it was everything he remembered and everything that he missed about dating Vaughn.

He just hadn’t calculated just how much he missed it, he had underestimated how much he loved it, how much he loved being with Vaughn and kissing him and touching him while his brain wasn’t clouded or overwhelmed by his heats.

“Is… is this okay?” Rhys muttered between heated kisses and gasps, “Are you okay with this?”

“Yeah,” Vaughn agreed eagerly, kissing the taller omega again. “keep going.”

Rhys was delighted to hear that and took to preening and purring as he pressed the two of them back down on the soft upholstery of their sofa.

He had never expected anything like this to happen, at least not again. He had figured that their relationship wouldn’t ever be able to go right back to where it was and even still he was incredibly glad for it to happen.

Vaughn on the other hand, was not shocked at just how easy it was to fall back in to old habits with Rhys – a part of him knew that this was going to get really messy, really fast. Omega / Omega relationships were considered to be incredibly taboo.

Though he knew there was nothing that anyone could have done to prevent the two of them dating, there would still be some sort of backlash from the more bigoted alphas, betas and omegas on Helios.

Rhys pressed a kiss to the corner of Vaughns lips, tearing him out of his thoughts. “I have an idea.” he mumbled sweetly, “If you’re up to it that is.”

“What do you – what do you have in mind?” Vaughn mumbled back in between kisses.

Rhys moved off of the other omega and sunk down to his knees in front of him and gave Vaughn a lip biting smirk, “Well… you’re looking really tense and I know that I’m always relaxed after an orgasm so...”

“Do you want to give me a blow job or something?” The other omega questioned incredulously while Rhys’ fingers danced along the zipper of his pants playfully.

“That’s the idea.” Rhys sang, “Sound good?” he added curiously.

Vaughn nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good.” he said slowly and lowly. “Great actually.”

It was the only affirmation that he needed to hear before he was pulling Vaughns’ dick out of the confines of his pants. He was much too impatient to actually get Vaughns’ pants off for this, he had waited a little too long and his nostalgia was making him hazy and impulsive.

Rhys gently coaxed the other omegas’ dick to hardness, pumping it gingerly and occasionally flicking his tongue against the slit of it while he did so. He was almost reverent in sucking Vaughns’ cock.

Rhys was all gentle kisses up and down the shaft of it, occasional swirls of his tongue on the head and slow gentle sucks while he got back into the swing of it.

He hollowed out his cheeks as he took more of it in his mouth, bobbing his head up and down while he did so – giving Vaughn ample opportunity to card his fingers through Rhys’ hair and mutter praises and curses while he pleased the smaller omega.

Considering how long this had been building up between the two of them, it didn’t take long for Vaughn to be right at the edge of orgasm. Especially with how much effort Rhys was putting into sucking him.

“Rhys, I’m gonna...” Vaughn tried to warn his best friend, but the taller omega just hummed and sucked harder, like he was trying to get Vaughn to come down his throat – he probably was – and looked up at the other omega, he even had the audacity to smile around the smaller omegas cock as he bucked his hips and came.

He waited for Vaughns’ cock to soften in his mouth before he pulled off of the other omega, Rhys grinned up at the other omega as he pulled back, he wiped his mouth demurely with the back of his hand and let out a little giggle. “That was fun.” he said, “I missed doing things like that for you.”

The taller omega put Vaughns’ spent cock back in his pants as a courtesy before moving back up on the couch to sit next to his – apparently once again – boyfriend.

Vaughn felt entirely stupid once again, his brain running completely on empty as Rhys smiled at him like he was in love, “I… do you want me to -” he stammered out with unsure feelings of what he had even meant to say.

“Return the favor?” Rhys questioned in a quipping tone. “Maybe later, but for now… I think we should do something a little more chaste.” he kissed Vaughn on the lips again with barely enough pressure for their lips to touch before he pulled back.

The two of them moved to Rhys’ bedroom and spent the rest of the night binge watching star wars and stuffing their faces full of ice cream and day old pizza.

They fell asleep curled up against each other with a singular blanket wrapped around them while the credits of ‘The Force Awakens’ played.

* * *

The next morning when Vaughn woke up, Rhys was not there but instead what he had was a horrid crick in his neck from the awkward position that the two of them had fallen asleep in and an obnoxious and showy hickey on his neck.

The omega frowned and made a note to himself to have Rhys help cover this up – as well he fucking should, it was Rhys’ fault that it was there in the first place.

He got himself up off of the bed and groaned as he padded into their crappy little kitchenette where Rhys stood, with music playing loudly off of his ECHO Comm as he cooked breakfast for the two of them.

That wasn’t really surprising, Rhys cooked breakfast every morning – Vaughn could swear that the omega got a secret thrill every time that someone complimented him on his culinary skills – and he usually cleaned up after wards.

He was surprised that Rhys hadn’t just woken him up and told him to get ready for the day – Vaughn had to wonder if the taller omega might have been having second thoughts about the two of them and if he realized after thinking on it that it wouldn’t be good for the two of them to be together again.

He really hoped that that wasn’t the case – it wasn’t like he had ever known Rhys to be cruel or lead anyone on like that but, still…

No matter how he tried, Vaughn couldn’t shake the thought that something terrible was going to happen to the two of them.

It was completely irrational and even more unfounded but he still couldn’t get rid of the feeling. Like he was going to get his hopes up and something would just happen to ruin it and it had his heart beating in his chest so hard that it seemed like it was trying to jump out of him and lead on its own life.

Vaughn weakly waved as the taller omega caught his eye. “Hey, bro.” He tiredly greeted the taller omega.

“Good morning.” Rhys hummed as he put the cooked food out for the two of them, a quietly contemplative look on his face as he did so. “Did you sleep alright? I mean you looked fine when I got out of bed this morning but you know, I just thought that I would make sure.” he rambled on, a lot more of his anxiety showing in him then he would usually allow others to see.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” The smaller omega replied genially, “I guess I didn’t expect things to turn out that way.” he added with unsettling honesty, “I kind of figured that we would be in this weird limbo that we’ve been in for a lot longer than we were.”

Rhys’ eyes glinted mischievously at that, “But where’s the fun in that?” he asked sardonically, “I’ve done enough moping and pining for the next decade.” he moved over to where Vaughn sat and took the other omegas hands in his own.

“I missed being with you, even before I came to Helios. It took a heat for me to be able to confront it and, I dunno, maybe if you hadn’t said something…” he trailed off, wondering if he would have had the guts to ever bring it up to the other omega.

 _‘Probably not’_ , he concluded quickly. He had never been good with relationships, he never knew how to start them and he sure as hell had no idea how he should end them.

“But that doesn’t matter now, right?” Vaughn grinned, feeling like he had the upper hand now. “Cause this is a thing now.” he added with a little more triumph, “You and me, it’s totally a thing again.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Rhys agreed in a grateful tone. He was more than happy to let Vaughn take the lead now, he was too flustered to be eloquent about any of this. “You’re right, it’s a thing. We’re a thing again.”

Neither of them would have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u have no idea how hard it was not to title this chapter Bro-job


	5. Everything is (Not) Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Polyamory stuff, Rhys and Vaughn both have anxiety about very different parts of the same issue and

Getting back together with Vaughn was, in a word, amazing. He had almost forgotten how sweet, considerate and just plain good that the other omega was towards him, it was so refreshing to him.

He had dated around a little when he worked for Atlas, mainly alphas, but every single relationship that he had been in turned out to be disappointing at best but none of that really mattered now that he was able to snuggle up with his boyfriend every night after a day of dealing with Assquez and his stupid hair plugs. Then, inevitably, Rhys did something that almost ended up ruining everything.

He had spoken to Vaughn about Jack, the way that he felt about that alpha and what might happen for his future heats

* * *

_Vaughn was pacing around the room, nervously tapping his fingers against the belt of his pants as he walked, while Rhys sat on a seat feeling hopelessly stupid. “Vaughn, I… just let’s forget about it, alright?” he tried, expecting the withering look that the other omega gave him. It got him panicking about losing his boyfriend.“Please, I mean it, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, bro, please let’s just forget it, I-”_

_“Rhys… stop.” Vaughn said, putting a hand on the taller omegas’ shoulder to ground him before he sat next to Rhys on their beat up love seat. The two of them so close that they were touching thighs and Vaughn put his hand on Rhys’ knee. He sighed, hating how much his brain got clouded by his genuine feelings for Rhys, “I’m not mad, okay?” Vaughn assured him gently._

_Rhys leaned close to Vaughn, “It’s not like I don’t want to be with you anymore. I like you a lot, it’s just that I like Jack too and I know it’s kind of…” he trailed off, “Greedy, maybe?” he shrugged before he jumped into a rambling rant,“I kind of want to date both of you but, um, I don’t want this to be something that makes you uncomfortable or upset or anything, so if this bothers you we don’t have to ever discuss it again and I’ll drop it forever. I really lo…like you. I don’t want to ruin anything between us.”_

_“Well… I’m not gonna have a threesome with an alpha, so.” Vaughn joked, earning a smile from the perpetually moping Rhys. The taller omega looked at him with a pout, “But that would be so fun!” he complained in a whiny, sarcastic tone._

_“I’ve never even met Jack.” Vaughn informed him, earning another guilty look from Rhys who apologized quietly. “You know what? I will… I want to meet him, just because you know I don’t want you to be dating someone who sucks because then I’d kind of be dating someone that sucks.”_

_Rhys mock gasped, “I would never do that to you, bro!” he replied, putting his hand to his chest like a gossipy Victorian house wife. “Jack is… pretty awesome, if I say so myself. I think you’ll like him, in a platonic sense.” he said, “So is that a no or a…”_

_“It’s a maybe.” the smaller omega told him in a matter of fact tone, “If this makes you happy, well… I’m more inclined to do anything that would make you happy.”_

_Rhys couldn’t believe his luck, or how sweet his boyfriend was. It was too nice and Vaughn was one of the most amazing people that he had ever met – he didn’t want anything to happen that would hurt their relationship again so he made a promise to himself not to mess anything up for them._

_Because Rhys knew that if anyone could tear apart a happy relationship without even realizing it, it would be him._

* * *

Just because Vaughn had agreed to meet Jack and maybe even enter a three way type of relationship with the alpha – barring on whether or not he was able to stand being around Jack for longer than an hour at a time – it didn’t mean that he was necessarily happy about it. Vaughn wasn’t really happy about it at all, but he was more committed to making his boyfriend happy than anything else and if having two boyfriends made Rhys happy then he would have to at least try.

He sighed and sat down at his desk, doing everything in his power not to worry about what might happen when he met this Jack guy. He had no wish to associate with anyone, so it made perfect sense that the most obnoxious girl in accounting ran up to his desk with an insane look on her face – wide eyes and tight smile, it was honestly a little frightening – and stood there, waiting for him to acknowledge her for a few minutes with her nails tapping against the plywood of his work desk.

He had barely flit his eyes up to her before she was talking to him, “Okay, hi, yes… you’re Vaughn right?” Vaughn gave her a look and she huffed continuing on, “I need you to run this down to R&D for me.”

“I’m kind of busy here.” The omega lied, trying not to look at his uncomfortably light work load. He frowned as he spoke on with a lot of false confidence, “Can’t you just get someone else to do it or, I don’t know, do it yourself?”

Internally, the omega cringed at himself because he was being absolutely terrible to this girl. He barely knew her and, because of the mixed feelings that he was having over Rhys and Jack and the impending doom of what would happen because of somebody else entering their relationship. It was okay, he told himself because he knew that Rhys loved him – told him so everyday and did all of the things that made Vaughn believe it was true – and he knew that Jack couldn’t drive them apart.

“Well, I have seniority here so…” She clicked her tongue, effectively making him hate her all over again. “I’m gonna need you to have that done within the hour,” Vaughn grit his teeth in annoyance and hid it with a tight lipped smile. To make matters worse, she ‘boop’d’ him on the nose seemingly just to be obnoxious. “Get it done. Thanks so much, cutie pants!”

“Cutie pants?” He whispered to himself as he waited until she was out of eye and ear shot to frantically rub at his nose to get her essence off of him. “Ugh, you are the worst.” He grumbled to himself as he walked out of the room and walked down the halls of Helios until he got himself to where his co-worker wanted him to drop things off.

“Professor… Nakayama.” Vaughn pulled a face as he read the name on the envelope, “Professor of what?” he asked rhetorically before he shook his head in derision as if to say, ‘I guess it doesn’t really matter though.’ before he worked to locate Nakayama’s door. Once he did, he rapped on the surface insistently for a few minutes before he got any sort of response.

The response that he got was the voice of some brash sounding guy and the voice of someone much less angry, more pleading and sad actually, replying to him with both of them speaking in hushed and frantic volumes. He continued on until he heard someone, the angry sounding guy he noted, spoke up in his annoyed tones. “You know what? I’ll go get that, you… stand over there. Away from me.” he said before swinging the door open, “What do you want?” he asked, going from angry to bored in a matter of seconds. Vaughn blanched, intimidated by the man – alpha, he could tell now – that stood in front of him. “Well? Come on. Out with it, I don’t have all day, short stuff.”

The ‘short stuff’ comment annoyed the omega enough so that he snapped out of his intimidated freeze and spoke up to the alpha, “Are you Professor Nakayama?” he asked in a flippant, biting tone. “If you are I have something for you.” he moved to hold the package out to him before the alpha – who was seeming more and more terrible by the moment – stopped him from doing so.

“Hey, you can stop right there because I’m not Nakataka.” he pointed over at the man in a lab coat in the room, “That’s him over there.” he said, before looking at Vaughn with a bit of suspicion. “What’s your name?”

“Wha- I… Vaughn.” The omega supplied, pointing at him self while feeling more like an idiot every moment. “I’m from accounting, one of the girls I work with sent me down here. Don’t ask me her name, I can never remember it.”

The alpha chuckled a bit, “Your name sounds familiar…” he said thoughtfully, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember, “Do you know a guy named Rhys? Omega, tall, kinda skinny but he’s got a great ass? Has this whole doe eyed affect about him? Ring any bells?”

Vaughns’ eyes widened a bit and he blinked a few times before he could speak, “Um, yeah. Yeah! That’s well… Rhys is my boyfriend.” his face fell a little bit, “Wait a minute…you’re Jack.” he said with his tone turning into something low and acidic.

The omega looked furious for a moment, like he was full of a rage that only blood could quench – it was a little freaky for Jack to be intimidated by someone that was half his size. Jack thought for about half of a second that Vaughn would punch him in the face, but thankfully the omega managed to compose himself before he did anything drastic.

“Yeah, that’s me.” the alpha said, decidedly not allowing himself to acknowledge the awkwardness of the situation. “We, uh, we’re having dinner tonight so you can decide if I’m worthy of dating your boyfriend.” he pulled a face, “Wow. Saying that out loud makes it seem really weird.”

“Having second thoughts?” Vaughn asked, just a little bit hopeful that he was. Because if Jack didn’t want Rhys like this, then the two of them could just move on with their lives and he didn’t have to feel terrible about it. “Because if you are, then you should tell me right now because if you lead him on or hurt him I will kill you.” the look on Vaughn’s face was dead serious. “I don’t care how tall or… whatever you are, if you hurt him I will ruin your life and I will kill you and I’ll make it look like an accident..”

Jack looked incredibly impressed which was not exactly what Vaughn had been going for when he made the two second decision to threaten the alpha. “Protective, huh? I can respect that.” he patted the omega harshly on the shoulder, like he was trying to push the edge out of Vaughn’s demeanor. “Don’t worry, kiddo.” he assured, “I wouldn’t ever do something like that to Rhysie… I wouldn’t hurt him, I… like him. I like him so much that I am having this awkward as hell conversation with his boyfriend.”

Vaughn blanched at that, feeling a little guilty with himself for being so petty – it wasn’t really like him. He prided himself on not being that type of person. “Right. Sorry,” he said, “I will, um, I will see you tonight. Rhys is cooking so if nothing else…. it’ll be delicious?” he added as he looked behind him, for any sort of opening for him to escape what had to be the most awkward situation that he had been in all year.

Luckily his out came in the form of a mousy looking doctor that slowly moved his way towards them and Vaughn decided to point him out, “You should probably finish your conversation.” he told Jack before handing off the package to Nakayama. “Deal with whatever you gotta deal with,” he waved weakly as he walked off, “See you tonight.”

As Vaughn skittered off, escaping his own terrible situation as he did so, Jack was left to deal with his most awkward situation of the year – and for him, that was a lot.

* * *

While Jack was working to get Nakayama off his back and Vaughn was psyching himself up to survive the dinner that night, Rhys was preparing himself emotionally for all possible outcomes – either good or bad and especially if they were bad – of tonight while he worked through his last few reports for the day.

One thing that he loved about working in sales was that it had turned out to be wonderfully easy and the ego trip that he got from being amazing at his job was almost worth the way that he got the job. It didn’t change the fact that it was definitely below his pay grade and he had to work along side someone that he despised – someone that could very well ruin his life if he got this promotion.

“Working late again, Rhys?” Henderson asked as he walked out of his office, “You’ve got an impressive work ethic for someone your age.” The compliment was a little backhanded but Rhys felt flattered by it nonetheless as his standards weren’t all that high anyways.

“Well, to be fair…” The omega replied in a somewhat wistful tone as he typed up the rest of the reports at something close to mach speed, “I don’t have much of a social life, so I like to work ahead. Gives me something to do, you know?”

It was a total lie – he had more then enough drama in his life at the moment. What with Jack and Vaughn and Vasquez running rampantly through his brain – but he knew how much bosses liked it when their employees lives had no meaning. It made them more viable candidates for upper management or even getting a seat on the board of executives if work was all they had going for them.

“That’s really sad…” he mumbled to himself before addressing Henderson again, “Um, but, anyways I’m almost done with everything here and I will be on my way home to…” ‘ _don’t say have dinner with my boyfriend and potential boyfriend. He’s not so much of an idiot that he won’t fill in the blanks about that. Bosses don’t like liars.’_ , he reminded himself. “Watch something on Netflix, maybe even order take out. You know, go _craaaazy_.”

Henderson laughed awkwardly, “Alright, well I’m gonna head out. Have a good weekend.” and he was on his way out before Rhys had the chance to suck up to the man a little bit more. Pity. Rhys finished everything up within five minutes and he was on his way back to his apartment to make the most delicious, maybe even nutritious, polyamory inducing dinner that the world – no – the universe has ever seen.

Things were looking good for him – he had everything for dinner set up at his apartment and all he had to do was go home, bake it and present it in such an amazing way that all three of them would forget any problems that they had and there would be a rainbow glittering out of his window… okay maybe not, he doubted that he could have such a good date that it defied all of the laws of physics but it would still end up being pretty amazing.

So it made sense to Rhys, in a weird sort of way, that he ended up bumping into Hugo Vasquez. He groaned, and looked up at the ceiling above him as if to say _‘Really god? Why this? Why now? Why me?’_ before he scoffed and addressed the alpha. “God, I just had to bump into you. It’s like you have some kind of sonar for whenever things are even somewhat decent in my life.” he snapped.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Vasquez said, “Heard you sucking up to Henderson earlier. It was pretty sickening, and pathetic. I thought you were ‘going to get that promotion on your own’.” he sneered.

He pulled a face at that, “It’s not my fault that old people love me.” he replied with a saccharine sweet voice filled to the brim with passive aggression. “Not my fault that I’m polite and kind and college educated. Top of my class actually, and I’m good at my job. Some would even say the best but, hey even if I’m not I know that I’m _waaaaaaay_ better at it than you.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re uncomfortably tall for an omega?” Vasquez jibed, looking to get a rise out of the omega. It worked a little, but not at all in the way that he would have expected.

“Anyone ever tell you that you smell like a sad person?” Rhys asked, with faux concern. “If you were, literally anyone else I would probably befriend you out of pity because you exude the aura of someone that’s going to die alone.” he cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips, “Probably a suicide.”

Vasquez was entirely stunned for a moment and Rhys took that as his queue to escape. “Okay, well this was incredibly uncomfortable.” he said, “I’m gonna go home and try to forget that I ever had this conversation. Bye!” he waved at the alpha as he trotted off.

Even though the encounter was weird and uncomfortable and… not what he wanted to happen, he couldn’t help but laugh a little as he walked back to his apartment. Something about making Hugo Vasquez miserable, even for just a second, managed to put a little smile on his face and make his day just the tiniest bit better.

It made the anxiety that he had been stuffing down and burying deep in his subconscious – but not so deep that he wasn’t still feeling the physical symptoms of it, kind of like a heart attack that was taking way too long to kill him – deplete to the point that he wasn’t even feeling echoes of it.

Though he was sure that he looked so peppy that some of his co-workers probably thought that he was on drugs and he was positive that there were going to be some damaging rumors involving that, he was feeling good about everything – good things were going for him and they could only get better.

He was sure of it.

* * *

Three hours, burnt cake in the garbage and the fire alarm being tripped twice later, Rhys realized that things were not great. No, they were terrible and spiraling downward so fast that he couldn’t even tell where things went wrong. Rhys couldn’t really help himself when he started panicking…. A lot.

By the point that Jack and Vaughn came in; Rhys looked like a human trash bag.

Rhys had been pacing around the room while running his fingers through his hair until the gel had become entirely useless and sat in awkward and frayed clumps placed sporadically all through his usually well coiffed hair. He had eventually gotten too tired for that and was curled up on his couch in a heap of misery, self pity and he was just generally pathetic looking. The omega would not blame either of them if they decided to get the hell away from him, but instead he was pleasantly surprised when both of them came to his aid. It was unsurprising to Rhys that Vaughn was the first one to say anything, after a few moments of uncomfortable, almost perplexed silence. “Hey… what’s going on?” he asked in a soothing tone.

“I, I ruined everything.” Rhys answered after a few minutes, “I don’t know how… I’ve been feeling kind of weird the past few days and I guess that I wasn’t paying attention but um,” he sniffled a little bit, “Dinner is destroyed. It was gonna be awesome, I had this whole thing planned and it was going to be like the edible glue that brings us all together.” he stopped when he heard Jack chuckle softly and he pouted in annoyance, “What’s so funny?” then it dawned on him, “I sound crazy, right. See? Ruined everything.”

Jack looked at him, a little incredulous, before he spoke. “Hey, that’s not what I’m thinking. I don’t think that you’re crazy,” the alpha said, “I just think that it’s really cute how much you care about things. I mean it’s not a big deal to me Rhysie and I don’t think that Vaughn cares either.”

“I really don’t…” Vaughn piped up suddenly, “Hey why don’t we just…get takeout? You don’t need to worry about impressing me or Jack. I mean I’ve been in love with you since… forever, and Jack likes you a lot too… probably.”

Jack gave Vaughn a mockingly offended look, “Of course I like you, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t like you.” he said, before moving in closer to Rhys to pull the omega close to him, so that Rhys was leaning on him on his side.

Vaughn sighed, moving to sit at Rhys’ other side – the tall omega wedged between them. “We’re both here for you, Rhys.” he said, “We can do whatever you want.” he put a finger up, “Except a threesome, hard pass on that.”

Rhys looked at the other omega, face completely miserable looking and lips quivering. “Both?” he asked. “But this was a disaster? I don’t…”

Then Jack stepped in, “Actually, me and uh, Vaughn met each other earlier. I was trying to get this creep to stop taking my mail and rooting through my garbage. Always forget his name… Naka-something.”

“Nakayama.” Vaughn supplied, “Anyways, yes we met. It was really awkward and terrible, I kind of made an ass of myself but I don’t think that we hate each other.” Jack shook his head minutely at that and shrugged. “And that was all I wanted to be okay with this sort of… relationship? I don’t know what to call it. Is there a word for it?”

Rhys giggled, sniffling a bit while he did so. “Yeah, um, we can discuss it later I guess.” he said, “But you guys are right. We should go and do something, maybe we could get Chinese and do something relaxed because I look like crap, no one should see me I look like a human trash bag.”

Jack scoffed, “A sexy trash bag, with legs for days and an ass that won’t quit.” he declared and Rhys laughed, deep in his belly and almost shocked. “And the most adorable laugh. Where do you get off being so damn cute? It’s actually a pretty great asset, you could destroy peoples lives and never get caught. Even if you do, no one would believe it.”

Vaughn laughed, “Yeah, I can see it now. ‘I don’t think that Rhys could airlock anyone. He’s so sweet, last week he brought a muffin basket in. For no specific reason, just to be nice.’ It would be the perfect crime.” he agreed, “That’s not a bad observation, actually.”

Rhys clicked his tongue, “Well I did bring in a muffin basket for everyone in sale this week…” he muttered to himself, feeling a little defeated by where the conversation was being steered. So he changed the topic with an eagerness that was almost desperate. “Can we watch ‘The Good Place’, please? After we get the food because I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I’m always too busy to eat while I’m working…”

“Why don’t you just sit tight, kitten?” Jack said, more of a demand than a question, before he dared to kiss the omega on the cheek. “I’ll go and get like, what, two orders of everything? I’ll pay, cause I make a crap load of money and barely spend any of it. You two have fun, but don’t watch anything awesome just yet. I won’t be long.”

Jack jogged out of the apartment, presumably to take a tram to the nearest takeaway restaurant. “He could have just ordered it…” Rhys pointed out, laughing. “He’s great, I really like him. You like him, right?”

“Yeah, he’s alright for an alpha.” Vaughn replied dismissively and at Rhys’ incredulous look, “I don’t know what to tell you, I’m not into alphas. His whole… thing, it does nothing for me.” Vaughn moved in close to the taller omega, cuddling up to him snugly. “But you. Well, you do literally everything for me. You’re so pretty and tall and… smart and, and nice… god, you naturally smell like vanilla and coconuts.”

Rhys smiled, “You’re so sweet.” he thanked the smaller omega before pulling him into a kiss that was sweet but not short at all, “I mean I don’t think I’m anything special but I’ll take the compliment.” he laughed awkwardly. “Dude, you are the best boyfriend in the freaking world and you’re being amazing about this, but… just to reiterate, you’re okay with this? Cause I’ve been researching and communication is, apparently, very important in these types of relationships so…”

“Look, you were freaking out about today and I was waking up for entirely separate reasons.” Vaughn explained, “I was scared that you would leave me for Jack and you were just… transitioning me out of your life because you found something better. More normal.”

“I would never do anything like that!” Rhys said, looking mortified, “That’s just… mean. I’m not mean like that and if I am mean it’s only in retaliation. You know my moral code. Okay, do you know how I asked Jack about this?” Rhys didn’t wait for Vaughn to say anything before he went off on a tangent. The other omega wasn’t all that shocked, it was expected behavior from his boyfriend.

“I was really drunk and I called him and left him a voicemail that told him that I am super attracted to him but I could never cheat on my boyfriend and I know this because he played it for me. Apparently it was hilarious.” he laughed, “I was drunk and I didn’t… I would never do that to you. Okay, you’re my freaking soul mate and I love you so much.” He finished off his speech by kissing Vaughn again. “So, so much.”

By the time that Jack got back to Rhys’ tiny apartment – he made a mental note to pull a few strings to get him a slightly better place – Vaughn and Rhys were cuddled up together on their sofa.

Rhys beamed when he saw Jack, “Hey, you! You brought the food. You are a saint, Jack. You’re tied with Vaughn as my favorite person now.”

The alpha snorted at that with more amusement then he should have before he turned to Vaughn.“Hey, short stuff,” he ignored the withering look that Vaughn gave him, “Help me out with the food here. Rhys is too skinny and, judging by how he sounds right now, really drunk.”

Rhys giggled as Vaughn stood up, “He’s not drunk.” The shorter omega said, “He just gets weird when he’s exhausted especially when he’s close to a-” he cut himself off, “he’s always been that way so you should just get used to it.” he added as he grabbed onto half of the boxes and cartons of food, “You got so much food.” he commented, “Good, we need leftovers. Thanks.”

Jack pretended not to notice that Vaughn’s expression softened just the tiniest bit,“So we’re doing a movie night? Sounds great, actually.” he said. Rhys perked up slightly, sitting himself. “How ya doing, Rhysie?”

The omega smiled sleepily at him and it took him aback in a way that he wouldn’t have expected – because it wasn’t like Rhys looked like sex on legs at that moment, but the smile on the omegas’ face had butterflies fluttering around in his stomach like he was some kind of stupid, lovesick teenager.

“You should stay the night.” Rhys declared, “It’ll just make everything easier. In the morning we can have breakfast – I’ll make it, this thing today was a total fluke – and we can… talk about everything like adults.”

“Sounds great, sugar roll.” Jack agreed with an overtly flirtatious wink directed towards the omega, “One question though, do I have to sleep on this couch? Because it’s awful.”

“I mean you can sleep with me in my bed. But just sleeping, no sexy stuff until we discuss all the why’s and how’s of this relationship.” He turned towards Vaughn, “You’re okay with that, right?”

“Yes… actually.” Vaughn said, in a way that seemed like he wasn’t entirely convinced himself, “I am completely fine with that.”

Rhys smiled triumphantly, “We’re working through this like adults.” he said, amazement clear in his tone. “This is actually working out…” the smile grew even further, “It’s actually working out. Okay let’s watch some stuff, I don’t want to sleep right now.”

The three of them hunkered down for the night, cuddled up together with more takeout than any human should be able to consume in front of them and a kitschy teen drama playing in the background that they were simultaneously watching and ignoring.

**Author's Note:**

> Jack will appear in the next chapter or two don't worry.


End file.
